Amy is a farm girl, foodie, wine lover, who loves to cook, fish and travel. She and her son Ethen live in a 1913 farmhouse on the family farm in Alexandria. Cooking has always been her passion from owning a pizza shop in 90’s, and catering fresh from scratch food, to competition cooking all over the US. Creativity in the kitchen has now overflowed into the wood shop. From 2006 till 2020 Amy was part of the Almendinger Sawmill team, through the years she has become a ”wood geek” ( her own self proclaimed name) passionate about helping people understand hardwood lumber and how to work with wood to show off the natural beauty unique beauty. Amy is looking forward to sharing her ideas while helping you create your own rustic wood décor.
Jeff is a farmer, sawyer, creative woodworker who loves to fish, play euchre, travel and has become foodie.( thanks to Amy) He grew up helping his father farm then becoming a prestigious custom home builder, he found his way back to farming as the building boom slowed in 2008 and his father retired from farming. He now farms over 600 acres of corn and soybeans and also enjoys meeting and working with the people he meets through his small sawmill business. Most of our lumber we use is sawn by him here on the farm.
Rustic barn studio where our workshops are held was built in the 1840's when the property was owned by the Avery family. Stanley and Dorothy Evans (Jeff's grandparents) purchased the farm in the 1940's It has had many different purposes over the past 170+ years. It was grainery where the the grain was stored for the livestock. It was a chicken barn where Jeff grandpa raised hens and sold eggs. to a storage building and now a rustic wood studio for everyone to enjoy the beauty of its hand hewed beams and wooden pegs.